Synopsis is not accurate

Firstly, I would like to address that the synopsis is not accurate at all. The central line of the story is a straightforward, hard working, 35 year old woman with strong convictions who goes up against a staunchly patriarchal society where she’s underestimated and under minded at work in order to follow her passion. The romance(s) are more or less something that happens along the way from her perspective. Also, there really isn’t a strong love triangle as such, more like a rivalry between the two guys which is superfluous since she (at the time) doesn’t seem interested in either of them.

That being said….

This drama was so unexpectedly good! The actors were believable and the writing was consistent with character portrayal. It had none of the tropes I abhorred about Find Yourself where the FL is immature, unsure, and doesn’t have a clue about what she actually wants- ending up with her flip flopping all over the place between two men and making both of them unsure of her.

I was also pleasantly impressed that despite the age gap, the actors had really good chemistry and were well rounded and developed characters.

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So...this drama impressed me a bit, despite the ok star score I gave it. I’ve seen quite a few lakorns, and cohesive plot lines are not always a given. This was very streamlined and had really good continuity. There weren’t a million characters that all had main storylines, there were 3/4 lines, but one was very obviously the main one.

On another note, since I’m in medicine, I generally stay away from medical dramas since the inaccurate depictions of medicine really irk me. I had a few moments of those, but not as many I would have expected. So I’ll applaud the writers who did their research for this one. Could’ve been been better, but not bad.

As for the actual storyline- very interesting concept. I like how they not only had how useful Tantawan’s gift is, but also how it can cause big problems, both comedic and heartbreaking.

The romance(s) in the story was/were fairly realistic from a certain point. Themes of being in love with multiple people but loving them differently and chasing your love vs fulfilling your needs was covered. It yielded some understandable, if not sometimes frustrating results.

And now my “things that annoyed me” list:
1) character failing to be considerate of other human beings and screaming at them in public for perceived wrongdoing.
2) overly harsh superiors in the hospital who place student doctors in positions of unrealistic responsibilities and then commit #1
3) really bad seniors at work who shame you into creating terrible work life balance. (This does get fixed by the end, but watching them indoctrinate students with idealistic dogma was hard to watch.)
4) serious issues with the damsel in constant distress. Tantawan is definitely infantile until the last episode. I’m not a huge fan of a lady who needs her man to come save her every time. (Paebii was awesome and had zero issues)
5) the ‘villain’ needed mental help, not just justice. Worst, this was acknowledged, but never had anything done about it. Which brings me to-
6) although some of the EM was technically ok (not great, but ok) the psychiatry and portrayals and simplification of diseases like depression, PTSD and depression with psychotic symptoms, was never portrayed properly. And sure, this is the farthest thing from a hard hitting medical drama, but misrepresentation of mental health in media just confuses viewers and misinforms them wan out the real issues people with those diseases deal with every day.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.

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At 24 episodes, most dramas would have felt dragging and unnecessarily stretched out, but this one never felt like that. The plot was involved and drawn out just enough to make the ending believable, but also had closure which was satisfying for the viewer who has been with the drama for so long. For someone who lives outside of Korea, it was educational to see how a multi party democracy functions.

Acting: All the actors were incredible, and completely believable. I love how all of them were so committed to their characters at all points of the story. The chemistry between the main leads has been questioned in some other reviews around the web, but I found them to be really well matched. The side characters were perfect as well, flawed even if well intentioned, and overflowing with an abundance depth. I’ll ascribe that to good script writing as well as good acting.

Plot: I’ve always been a fan of politics, and watch shows like Designated Survivor and Madam Secretary, so political dramas are very up my alley. I know this isn’t the case for everyone, so if you don’t enjoy politics, this may not be good choice since it is centered around that. The romance, family interactions and friendships are really pushed to the background. Be that as it may be, the main romances in this drama are really well fleshed out despite the short amount of screen time and the proper depth of emotion is conveyed. I appreciated that the drama was written to allow bittersweet endings and messy emotional situations that are present in real life. It made the story feel more real, even if it was sad and left you wishing things had worked out better.

This is an older drama, but it didn’t feel like it at all. It still feels incredibly relevant today. This drama really pulled at my heart in a lot of places. It is one of my favorite dramas, not just kdramas, of all time. I’ll defiantly rewatch and recommend this to others.

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This drama was so beyond my expectations. It was realistic, gritty at times, and had no frills, which I really appreciated for a change.
The drama is well written. In a lot of other shows, the romance carries the story the whole way till the last 2 episodes where the tiny string of background conflict gets resolved. I loved that the main plotline revolves around their jobs and the thefts, making the resolution of the conflict much more satisfying. The romance as a whole was a side piece that rounded out and made the story sweeter to watch. I will also say that the romance in general was really well portrayed. There were no evil ex-girlfriends or scheming mother-in-laws. The obstacles to love were real and believable, and the whole thing was just beautiful to watch. The main couples relationship grew slowly, like a flower slowly blooming.

The part of the story that grabbed my attention was Heo ChoHee’s character by Kim Sun Ah. Amid all the dramas with melodramatic, emotionally volatile heroines, she was breathtaking as a well rounded and fleshed out character who made no bones about her priorities in life. It was so refreshing to see a female lead that didn’t melt into a giggling puddle of mush when she fell in love, and instead let the relationship add a new dimension to herself.

Kim Bumsung’s character was well developed too I thought- very thoughtfully portrayed and believable. In fact, I really loved all the acting in this show. The cast was superb. (I will caveat that Joo Hyun’s character was annoying at times, but endearing by the end.)

I just loved this drama. Hope others do too.

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This drama was a mixed bag of tropes and cliches, but also the unexpected. I went in expecting an angst ridden love square, with over the top scenarios. I also subconsciously expected to be given a female lead who was a body guard but somehow completely inept and incapable compared to her strong, male colleague who inevitable have to save the damsel. I expected it because so many times I’ve started dramas and got so fed up with female characterization, that I dropped the show in disgust.

This was a pleasant surprise and incredibly refreshing. Chearim’s character was flawed and made mistakes and had some amount of arrogance at first, but through out the series, her character is unwaveringly feminist. She never gives a crap about how she appears to the male gaze, she stays comfortable and true to herself. She gives chauvinistic characters to verbal smack down and gently educates the little Gonim with words and actions. But most importantly, she stays true to her goals and dreams, despite many, many distractions along the way.

This wasn’t a prefect drama, one of the subplots in particular was unnecessarily drawn out and made the drama a little draggy in the first half; But once that is cleared up, the story picks up quite a bit. Frankly though, even when it was draggy, it was just so refreshing to see a flawed, but still likeable female character in the midst of growing as a person, who was strong and had even stronger convictions.

The whole drama is not really rewatchable, so much as specific parts are, but it’s definitely worth pushing through to the end.

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